Gas masks selling like hot cakes on Ebay

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I paid $10 for one of these in 1999 for Y2K. Now they're going for over $100.

-- (doomers@are.smart), September 25, 2001

Answers

I just checked Colemans.com and they are selling israeli gas masks for $49.95. sportsmansguide.com appears to be out.

-- nosheephere (nosheephere@yahoo.com), September 25, 2001.

What for??

-- Zzzzz (asleep@the.wheel), September 25, 2001.

Silly fools....well, at least the gas masks will hide your ugly, surprised, dead faces. Are you going to wear the worthless things 24/7 from now until the day you die? (you'll have to for it to be effective). When are you going to remove it? (In several years? That's how long the spores live). Will the mask you buy even protect you? (The filters in yours may not even be designed to handle biologicals). Duh...LOL...dream on, little innocents...

Warning - Nothing (prophylaxis, treatment) works against the Russian engineered "superbug".

ANTHRAX

SUMMARY:

Signs and Symptoms: Incubation period is 1-6 days. Fever, malaise, fatigue, cough and mild chest discomfort is followed by severe respiratory distress with dyspnea, diaphoresis, stridor, and cyanosis. Shock and death occurs within 24-36 hours after onset of severe symptoms.

Diagnosis: Physical findings are non-specific. A widened mediastinum may be seen on CXR. Detectable by Gram stain of the blood and by blood culture late in the course of illness.

Treatment: Although effectiveness may be limited after symptoms are present, high dose antibiotic treatment with penicillin, ciprofloxacin, or doxycycline should be undertaken. Supportive therapy may be necessary.

Prophylaxis: (note warning above) An FDA licensed vaccine is available. Vaccine schedule is 0.5 ml SC at 0, 2, 4 weeks, then 6, 12, and 18 months for the primary series, followed by annual boosters. Oral ciprofloxacin or doxycycline for known or imminent exposure.

Isolation and Decontamination: Standard precautions for healthcare workers. After an invasive procedure or autopsy is performed, the instruments and area used should be thoroughly disinfected with a sporicidal agent (chlorine).

OVERVIEW:

Bacillus anthracis, the causative agent of Anthrax, is a rod-shaped, gram-positive, sporulating organism with the spores constituting the usual infective form. Anthrax is primarily a zoonotic disease of herbivores, with cattle, sheep and horses being the usual domesticated animal hosts, but other animals may be infected. Human disease may be contracted by handling contaminated hair, wool, hides, flesh, blood and excreta of infected animals and from manufactured products such as bone meal, as well as by purposeful dissemination of spores. Infection is introduced through scratches or abrasions of the skin, wounds, inhalation of spores, eating insufficiently cooked infected meat, or by flies. All human populations are susceptible. The spores are very stable and may remain viable for many years in soil and water.

HISTORY AND SIGNIFICANCE

Anthrax spores were "weaponized" by the United States in the 1950's and 1960's before the old U.S. offensive program was terminated. Other countries have weaponized this agent or are suspected of doing so. The anthrax bacterium is easy to cultivate and spore production is readily induced. Spores are highly resistant to sunlight, heat and disinfectants - properties which could be advantageous when choosing a bacterial weapon. Iraq admitted to a United Nations inspection team in August of 1991 that it had performed research on the offensive use of B. anthracis prior to the Persian Gulf War of 1991, and in 1995 Iraq admitted to weaponizing anthrax. This agent could be produced in either a wet or dried form, stabilized for weaponization by an adversary and delivered as an aerosol cloud either from a line source such as an aircraft flying upwind of friendly positions, or as a point source from a spray device. Coverage of a large ground area could also be theoretically facilitated by multiple spray bomblets disseminated from a missile warhead at a predetermined height above the ground.

CLINICAL FEATURES:

Anthrax presents as three distinct clinical syndromes in man: cutaneous, inhalational, and gastrointestinal disease. The cutaneous form (also referred to as malignant pustule) occurs most frequently on the hands and forearms of persons working with infected livestock. It begins with a papule followed by formation of a blister-like fluid-filled vesicle. The vesicle typically dries and forms a coal-black scab, hence the term anthrax (Greek for coal). Sometimes this local infection will develop into a systemic infection which is often fatal. Endemic inhalational anthrax, known as "Woolsorters" disease, is a rare infection contracted by inhalation of the spores. It occurs mainly among workers handling infected hides, wool, and furs. The intestinal form, which is also very rare in man, is contracted by the ingestion of insufficiently cooked meat from infected animals. In man, the mortality of untreated cutaneous anthrax ranges up to 25 per cent; in inhalational and intestinal cases, the case fatality rate is almost 100 percent.

DIAGNOSIS

After an incubation period of 1-6 days, presumably dependent upon the dose and strain of inhaled organisms, the onset of inhalation anthrax is gradual and nonspecific. Fever, malaise, and fatigue may be present, sometimes in association with a nonproductive cough and mild chest discomfort. These initial symptoms are often followed by a short period of improvement (hours to 2-3 days), followed by the abrupt development of severe respiratory distress with dyspnea, diaphoresis, stridor, and cyanosis. Shock and death usually follow within 24-36 hours after the onset of respiratory distress. Toxin production parallels the appearance of bacilli in the blood and tests are available to rapidly detect the toxin. Concurrently with the appearance of anthrax, the WBC count becomes elevated and remains so until death.


MEDICAL MANAGEMENT

Almost all inhalational anthrax cases in which treatment was begun after patients were significantly symptomatic have been fatal, regardless of treatment. Penicillin has been regarded as the treatment of choice, with 2 million units given intravenously every 2 hours. Tetracyclines and erythromycin have been recommended in penicillin allergic patients.

Standard Precautions should be practiced. After an invasive procedure or autopsy, the instruments and area used should be thoroughly disinfected with a sporicidal agent. Iodine can be used, but must be used at disinfectant strengths, as antiseptic-strength iodophors are not usually sporicidal. Chlorine, in the form of sodium or calcium hypochlorite, can also be used, but with the caution that the activity of hypochlorites is greatly reduced in the presence of organic material.

Anyway...good luck, gentlemen...forgive my skepticism and drive on, it's good for the econony, if nothing else...

-- Zzzzz (asleep@the.wheel), September 25, 2001.

So why does the israeli government issue a gas mask to every citizen if they are so useless?

-- nosheephere@yahoo.com (nosheephere@yahoo.com), September 25, 2001.

Thought I would add my 2 cents about the threat of bio and chemical terrorism. A few observations and a few questions.

A report in this past Saturday's Globe and Mail in Toronto called The Poor Man's Nukes" presented a good picture of the situation.

http://www.globeandmail.ca/servlet/GIS.Servlets.HTMLTemplate? tf=tgam/search/tgam/SearchFullStory.html&cf=tgam/search/tgam/SearchFul lStory.cfg&configFileLoc=tgam/config&encoded_keywords=poor+man% 27s+nukes&option=&start_row=1¤t_row=1&start_row_offset1=&num_row s=1&search_results_start=1

I won't reprint the entire article, but I thought I would highlight one part of the article tries to balance out the fear:

If there is any comfort to be found, it's that experts agree that while the agents are easy to acquire and culture, they are not simple to disseminate.

From 1991 to 1993, the Japanese terrorist group Aum Shinrikyo made nine separate unsuccessful attempts to unleash anthrax and another bioagent through Tokyo and its suburbs, Zilinskas said. "And this was a well-financed group, with microbiology expertise." The cult did manage to unleash sarin in the subway system in 1995, killing 12 people. I have read and heard other experts say much the same thing; i.e. that "weaponizing" biological agents is not that easy. Think about it: if it were easy would not an attack somewhere have already taken place in the past decade? I don't want to say that the threat is really low, but don't let blind fear get the best of you.

Another observation: people, both in the media and on this board, have talked about the sophistication of the terrorists in the attacks on the WTC and Pentagon. I agree that the attacks were planned in a very sophisticated and coordinated manner, but the technology the terrorists used was extremely low-tech. They didn't use anything that wasn't available to Joe Public: the internet, flight training and box-cutter knives. It is a leap in logic to conclude that they also have the ability to transport and disseminate effectively biological and chemical agents. That is a much more high tech proposition. As the Globe report says, the Japanese cultists couldn't disseminate biological agents depsite 9 attempts, good financing and microbological expertise.

Bin Laden and his ilk need a state sponsor to even consider chemical or biological warfare. Iraq, Libya etc. may depise the US and the West, but they are not complete dummies. Attacking the US with a weapon of mass destruction will invite a proportionate retaliation. Although direct diplomatic channels may not be available, I'm sure the US government has used intermediaries to convey to these countries that the principle of MAD still applies.

And there are those who have argued that MAD prevented a nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the US. Perhaps it will work for the 21st century?

-- Johnny Canuck (j_canuck@hotmail.com), September 25, 2001.



Zzzzz, you fool, mustard gas!!! Those Bin Ladens are big WWI buffs.

Actually, those masks will be very useful for anyone planning to do a little looting during the inevitable Civil Disobedience that will occur when society breaks down (like it was supposed to during Y2K,) I hear they work great against teargas.

-- Bemused (and_amazed@you.people), September 25, 2001.


Off.

-- Off (Off@damn.tag), September 25, 2001.

So why does the israeli government issue a gas mask to every citizen if they are so useless?

So they don't lose their sidewalk table seats at Sbarro when the palistinians are being pepper sprayed.

-- Bemused (and_amazed@you.people), September 25, 2001.


I thought al-D was promoting gas-masks as a sex toy. He never did get back to me on that, so I don't know.

-- Anita (Anita_S3@hotmail.com), September 25, 2001.

NoSheepHere: I think the Israeli's issue them in an attempt to prevent hopeless widespread (and totally justified) panic, among their people.

When I was in grade school we used to have nuclear "Duck and Cover" drills, just like fire drills. We'd all get under our desks at school. Now...I ask ya: in the flash of a 10 Megaton nuclear device, would that have helped? But you have to offer people some sort of "HOPE", no matter how silly it may be, in reality.

And to Johnny Canuck: All it takes is a little one man crop duster plane, like the one's the government has already grounded (hope these terrorists don't have too many more stashed in old barns somewhere, just waiting). And Saddam will give them all the weaponized material they can carry, it's their ass that will be blamed, not his, and it's certainly in his own interests to do so, isn't it?

-- Zzzzz (asleep@the.wheel), September 25, 2001.



ZZZ

Are you wanting to discuss this further? Or are you wanting to demonize, patronize and insult?

-- (nosheephere@yahoo.com), September 26, 2001.


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